The Supreme Court Just Dealt a Blow to Voting Rights Advocates

“They did not deny relators the right to establish a charter form of county government; instead, they merely examined the charter initiatives to determine whether they met the threshold requirements for inclusion on the ballot”.

McKeague and Judge Richard Allen Griffin were appointed by President George W. Bush, while Stanch is a nominee of Obama.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld Ohio’s restrictive voting laws, meaning people will not be able to register and cast a ballot on the same day at the start of the state’s early voting period. The court blocked a new provision of the law that required precise completion of those ballots.

In a separate OH voting-rights case decided on Tuesday by the 6th Circuit, a three-judge panel issued a split ruling. In 2009, the court had 13 judges named by Republicans, four by Democrats.

Meanwhile, in a separate case, a panel of the Cincinnati-based US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday voted 2-1 that the state can not reject absentee ballots simply because required address and birth date information on accompanying identification envelopes is not filled out with “technical precision”.

The law afforded “abundant and convenient opportunities for all Ohioans to exercise their right to vote”, the court added. In those cases, some or all of the court’s conservative justices voted to block the lower court decisions and reinstate the cutbacks, but they fell short of the necessary five votes to prevail.

According to Republican State Sen.

“They afforded greater protections for white, suburban, absentee voters, but no protection at all for people voting with provisional ballots who make the same trivial errors”, he lamented. The week was introduced after lengthy lines at OH polling locations marred the 2004 election.

And in Georgia, a coalition of civil rights groups went to court Wednesday challenging the state’s voter registration rules.

Still, the Republican Party’s strong inclination toward voter suppression makes the question of who will ultimately control the Supreme Court more crucial than ever. United States citizens abroad got the right to vote in federal elections in 1975 with passage of the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Rights Act.

To get the absentee ballot applications, which can be downloaded anytime at the secretary of state’s website, Ohioans must be on record as participating in the 2012 or 2014 general elections.

Voter ID rules posted at the door of the voting station at the Alamance Fire Station in Greensboro, North Carolina, on March 16, 2016. In 2014, they let restrictions stand in North Carolina, Ohio and Texas, while blocking them in Wisconsin.